


Subtle Adjustments

by Connorperry42



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: Baby Niall, Diapers, Dubious Consent, Infantilism, Niall-centric, Spanking
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-09-22
Updated: 2016-07-12
Packaged: 2018-04-22 20:33:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 15,951
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4849586
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Connorperry42/pseuds/Connorperry42
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Zayn had been gone for a week before changes started amongst the boys of one direction. This was just the beginning; everyone was still feeling out how they felt. Most of what they did was out of reaction not true thought out actions. The gestures were so subtle that no one really noticed, no one that is other than the one whose life was being altered.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Alright, I'm not abandoning Hiding in the Shadows but I had this idea bouncing around in my head and it won't go away. Here it is. If there is no interest I'll drop it. This is progressive ageplay. Thank you. Please share your opinions and if you have any questions by all means ask.

When a family looses someone they care about it is only natural for the remaining members to ban together. During this time changes can occur. In some cases one person will step up and take over more responsibility in others one person will become more clings in fear of losing others and one person may become more independent so that they don't become too reliant on others incase someone else leaves but at the same time refuses to go too far. It's a natural occurrence that happened over time, in small increments, and very few people ever really noticed.

Zayn had been gone for a week before any such changes started amongst the boys of one direction. This was just the beginning; everyone was still feeling out how they felt. Most of what they did was out of reaction not true thought out actions. The gestures were so subtle that no one really noticed, no one that is other than the one whose life was being altered.

"Let's get going" Liam called from the door of the hotel. The boys all had an interview scheduled in two and a half hours and they were running late.

"All set" Harry said coming over.

Niall yawned and rubbed his eyes as he trudged over, "Ready"

"Late night Nialler?" Harry laughed.

Niall shook his head, "Early band practice"

"You don't have to attend every practice you know" Louis commented finally joining the group.

"Let's go" Liam interrupted the impending argument. Louis and Niall had always gotten into it about band practice. The practices were always at odd hours because they had to work around the band schedule and the one direction schedule. Louis felt as though Niall should only attend some of the practices because he only played in some of the songs and Niall felt that he should attend all practices just like everyone else in the band.

Everyone quietly stalked out of the room and down to the van. Thankfully they were able to take the service elevator to the garage without anyone being able to get to them. As soon as they were all seated the van started to move.

Liam sat back and started a conversation with Harry over who had the best tattoo and what they were thinking about getting next. Niall sat back, popped in his headphones and leaned against the window hoping to get a bit more sleep during the hour and a half drive they had to the television station.

Louis took in what everyone was doing. Liam and Harry's conversation didn't appeal all that much to him so he turned to Niall hoping for someone to talk to. "Niall?"

Niall held in a groan when he heard Louis call his name, he just wanted sleep, "What?"

"You're not buckled"

Niall blinked, "What?"

"Put your seatbelt on" Louis instructed.

"It's fine" Niall shrugged it off. It was harder to curl up and sleep when you had a belt restraining you.

"Niall" Louis called again when Niall turned back to the window.

"Just let it alone" Niall said exasperatedly. Why was this so important? It's never been a big deal any other time he's done it.

"Put your belt on and I will" Louis said.

"I'm not putting it on" Niall informed the older one.

Louis just shook his head in annoyance and reached over Niall for the belt.

Niall jumped at Louis' intrusion into his personal space, "What the hell are you doing!?"

"Buckling you in" Louis stated as he finally clicked the buckle and sat back.

Niall glared at Louis and unclicked the buckle, "I said I didn't want to be buckled"

Louis couldn't believe it. What was Niall thinking? Did the boy have a death wish? "Niall!"

The argument going on in the back seat finally drew Liam and Harry's attention. "What's up?" Liam asked turning around.

"Louis' insane" Niall said.

"Niall here has a death wish" Louis replied.

"Don't suppose either one of you could be a little more specific?" Harry asked.

"Niall won't ware his seatbelt" Louis explained.

"I don't want to wear it" Niall said.

Liam shook his head, this was a stupid argument, "Niall just put the belt on"

"It's for safety" Harry explained as though this simple fact would make Niall see the sudden importance for wearing a belt.

"I don't want it" Niall repeated.

"And I don't care" Louis responded.

"Well then it's a good thing what I do isn't your concern" Niall spat back.

"Niall put the belt on" Liam ordered.

"No"

"Why?" Harry asked.

"It's uncomfortable" Niall explained slowly.

"There's no need to be rude" Liam scolded.

Niall ignored Liam and started to put his headphones back in when he felt Louis reach over him – again! "GET OFF OF ME!"

"Niall you have to wear a belt" Harry informed the boy.

"No I don't" Niall stated.

Louis was sick of this conversation, "This isn't a debate. It's the law"

"I don't care" Niall replied.

Liam wasn't in the mood to continue this asinine conversation. He turned around and knocked on the dividing door between the front and the back of the van. "Hey Paul, I need you to pick something up for me..."

Niall, Harry and Louis were still fighting over the seatbelt when the van pulled into a parking lot. All three stopped and looked out the windows.

"We're not there yet are we?" Harry asked.

"We can't be" Niall insisted, "We've only been driving for ten minutes"

"Then where are we?" Louis asked.

"Paul's just getting me something" Liam explained. "Hey Louis do you think you could pull Niall over for a few minutes?"

"Um... sure" Louis said confused.

"No!" Niall insisted.

Louis didn't feel like listening to Niall though and just plucked the struggling boy up out of his seat and dropped Niall onto his lap. "Now what?"

"LET ME GO!" Niall yelled.

"What's with all the screaming?" Paul asked opening the door with a rather large item in his hand.

"What's that?" Harry asked completely ignoring the screaming, thrashing boy in the backseat.

"It's for Niall" Liam said simply as he kept his head buried in his phone.

"Niall?" came the confused replies from Louis and Harry; Niall went with "Me?"

"Liam said that Niall was having a safety issue" Paul explained as he climbed in the back and started setting up the large, unknown item.

Paul was quick with his work. He wasn't entirely certain why Liam thought this was a good idea but he'd let it be, the boys always dealt with each other in house and Paul really didn't feel like getting in the middle of this. "All done" he stated as he backed away, "Liam, just knock three times when we're ready to head out again but please hurry it up"

"Will do" Liam agreed before turning behind him.

"No F......ing way!" Niall screamed as soon as he realized what Paul had just secured into the back seat of the van.

"Brilliant!" Louis beamed. This would solve their problems.

"Do you need help?" Liam asked turning around and watching as Louis struggled to get a trashing Niall fully into the seat.

"Yeah" Louis huffed out, "that would be... ooof, good"

Immediately Harry was reaching around the side of the seat and grabbing Niall's legs while Liam took ahold of Niall's hands. This left Louis free to get Niall properly situated.

"Alright let me have his right hand" Louis instructed, "Now the left... perfect" Louis clicked the last buckle and then a pin popped out.

Immediately both Niall and Louis reached for the pin, unfortunately Louis got here first, "GIVE IT!" Niall demanded.

"I think I'll hold onto this for a while" Louis said as he hooked the pin onto his keychain before slipping it back into his pocket.

Liam leaned forward and knocked on the window and seconds later they were off. "Now let's just sit back and enjoy the rest of the ride to the interview please"

"LET ME OUT!" Niall screamed.

No one responded. Harry did start to turn around but Liam stopped him, shaking his head no. It was best to just let Niall wear himself out, engaging with him would do nothing but encourage the boy.

It took twenty minutes before Niall finally stopped fighting and just slumped back thoroughly exhausted "You all suck"

"You had the chance to buckle up yourself" Liam stated simply.

"And when I refuse you trap me in a car seat?" Niall exclaimed in disbelief, "How do those to things equal out?"

"You refuse to be safe so we see to it that you don't have a choice" Louis answered.

Niall just couldn't quite wrap his head around the logic behind that, "Bit of an overkill don't you think?"

"No" Harry said.

Before Niall had a chance to continue arguing Louis, Harry and Liam all started up a separate conversation. Niall did all that he could think of to get the other's attention, pester them into letting him out, but they ignored him! Soon enough he gave a cry of irritation, kicked out at the seat in front of him (Harry's), crossed his arms, stared out the window and pouted.

Everyone took note of Niall finally quieting down and they settled down themselves. It was no secret to anyone that Niall was tired; they hadn't gotten back in until after midnight the night before and band practice had started at four thirty. Poor Niall didn't get a lot of sleep last night.

Ever so slowly Liam pulled out the remote and started tilting the car seat back until Niall was laying more than he was sitting up. Thank you technology.

Niall had jumped a little when the seat started to move but he just didn't have the energy to fight it. It's not like he could get out of the seat anyway.

"There's been an accident on the freeway and traffic's practically at a stand still" Paul informed opening the separator a bit, "Looks like we're going to be here for a while. Sorry"

"It's no problem" Liam assured.

Louis opened up the Pandora app on his phone and created a new station of lullabies. He set the music to low before going back to what he was doing.

Soon enough three boys were staring at their phone screens, soft music was playing and one boy was sleeping soundly.

Louis smirked as he took a good look at Niall and then leaned forward, "Think he'll be in a better mood when he wakes up?


	2. Lunch or Supper?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Alright Chapter 2. Here is a disclaimer since I forgot it before. I own nothing. I love to hear from you all on your thoughts and opinions. I'm having a hard time deciding how to incorporate different things like rules, punishments, dummies, sippy-cups and then to bottles, toys, etc. I could use some help with ideas on that. I want it to be slow, gradual, nothing to fast and not more than one thing per chapter. If you have any questions by all means ask and I will do my level best to answer them. Thank you.

Turns out that the accident slowed traffic to a stand still for a little over two hours. When they were finally moving at a decent clip again they realized that by the time they made it to their destination the interview would be long over as was half of rehearsals. None of the boys felt like attending the rest of rehearsals and they were rather hungry so Liam instructed Paul to find them someplace they could eat where they wouldn’t be bombarded the entire time, not that he didn’t love the fans but he was starving.

As the van started turning into the parking lot of a little back road restaurant that only had seven others vehicles (including staff) three boys turned to look at the sleeping one strapped into the car seat.

“I hate to wake him” Louis sighed.

“He has to eat” Harry said simply.

“I know” Louis agreed.

Niall suddenly felt the ground slowly start to tip forward on him. It was an unnerving sensation to someone who was dead asleep and he jolted his eyes open suddenly trying to jerk himself forward only to find that he was restrained. “What the…” he remembered, he groaned.

“Hey Nialler” Louis smiled, “Did you have a nice nap?”

“F…k off” Niall sneered.

“Niall” Liam scolded.

Niall just glared at Liam. He was pissed with the boys, how could they do this to him? There was a big difference between not wanting to wear a seat belt and being trapped in a car seat!

“Hungry?” Harry asked breaking the silent glaring contest.

“Yes” Liam and Louis replied. Niall just shrugged.

“Let’s eat then” and with that Harry started getting out or the van.

Louis leaned over Niall and put the pin up to the lock of the car seat, “Here we go” he said as he opened the buckles.

Instantly Niall was off of the seat and out of the van, grateful to be away from the dreaded torture device.

“Niall don’t wonder off” Liam called from back at the door of the van.

Niall ignored Liam. He loved the boys to death, he did, but right now he wanted to be as far away from all of them as he could possibly get. Without waiting for the others Niall started walking to the entrance of the restaurant.

Louis, Liam and Harry watched Niall walk off in annoyance. “Did I not just tell him to stay close?” Liam asked in disbelief.

“He’s in a mood today” Harry commented.

“He’s being stubborn is what he is” Louis amended.

“I don’t care what it is he can’t just walk off on his own or ignore his own safety” Liam said before leaving the other two and rushing over to Niall.

Niall saw Liam coming from the corner of his eye and tried to make a change in direction before the man caught up with him – it didn’t work.

“What part of ‘don’t wander off’ did you not understand?” Liam asked annoyed.

“I didn’t wander off” Niall sneered as he picked up the pace, “I merely started walking towards the entrance with some of the security team”

Liam sprinted to catch up and then caught Niall’s arm forcing the boy to stop. “You left the three of us and ran off on your own pouting”

“Let go of me” Niall demanded as he yanked his arm out of Liam’s grasp.

Louis and Harry had managed to catch up to the other two finally and as Niall turned away from Liam he quickly found himself facing two irritated expressions.

“I’m not in the mood for this” Liam stated.

“Neither am I” Louis agreed as he reached forward and took Niall’s hand into his own, “Therefore until you have shown that you know how to stay with us you will hold one of our hands from now on”

“What!?” Niall screeched, “No way in hell is that happening!” he desperately tried to get his hand away from Louis but, unfortunately for Niall, the older man was stronger.

“Niall stop fighting” Louis instructed, “We don’t want to cause a scene”

“And you holding my hand won’t cause a scene?” Niall asked annoyed though he did stop struggling. They were about to walk into the restaurant and he didn’t want the entire staff to watch him writhing around trying to get out of Louis’ grasp – that would do nothing but create headlines.

“Everyone knows we’re a clingy bunch” Harry responded as he walked through the door first.

“No one will care about two of us holding hands” Liam informed as he brought up the rear, “You struggling against Louis on the other hand will bring up some questions.”

Niall huffed and sent mutinous glares to all of them but knew that they were right, his struggling would only cause a scene. Still the second that they were seated at a back booth Niall jerked his hand away from Louis and tried to sit at the table next to the others. His plan didn’t work.

“Oh no you don’t” Liam said as he quickly pushed Niall into the booth and then slid in next to the boy effectively trapping him in.

“You’re an ass” Niall hissed.

Liam choose to ignore that comment and merely stared at the menu instead.

“What are you thinking on getting?” Harry asked after a few minutes of silence.

“Um… I think I’ll have the double decker burger” Louis answered.

“I’m having the turkey club” Liam said, “What about you?”

“I was thinking on the Meatball sub” Harry responded.

Liam nodded, “What about you Niall?”

“What?” Niall asked coming out of his own thoughts.

“What are you planning on having for lunch?” Liam repeated.

“Well more like supper really” Louis amended. It was the truth, at three thirty it was closer to supper than it was to lunch.

Niall looked down at the menu currently sitting on the table in front of him. “Oh. Um…” What was he going to have for lunch? He was hungry, he knew that but he didn’t want to have too much since they had a concert in a few hours and he didn’t want to stuff himself and then be groggy during the show – he could always eat something after the concert. “I’m gonna get the vegetable soup”

“No” was Louis’ instant reply.

Niall scrunched up his face in confusion, “And why not?”

“Because it’s not filling enough” Louis said.

“It’s plenty filling” Niall responded.

“Niall” Louis said patiently, “You have not eaten since breakfast this morning – yours being at four by the way. You need to have something more filling than a bowl of vegetables and broth”

“Wait” Harry interrupted, “Four this morning?”

Niall rolled his eyes, “I had band practice at four thirty and then we had to leave right after for the interview”

Harry paused doing the math. Niall had practice at four thirty and they left for the interview at eleven thirty meaning… “Band practice lasted for seven hours?”

“No” Niall responded slightly annoyed, “It took half an hour to get there, it didn’t start till five really and then we practiced for about four hours. We sat around talking for an hour or so after then we drove back. I had just fallen asleep on the couch when Liam called us all to leave”

“Right” Harry said, “Of course”

“Are you all ready to order?” A waiter asked coming over to the table.

Harry and Louis gave their orders before Liam spoke, “I’ll have the turkey club and he’ll have the meatball sub. Thanks”

The waiter nodded and headed off before Niall got the chance to correct Liam, “What the hell did you do that for?” Niall questioned, “I said I wanted the vegetable soup”

“I could always call him back and get that as a starter if you would like” Liam offered.

Niall balked at that, “I don’t want it as a starter I want it as my meal”

“It’s not enough to fill you” Liam stated simply, “If I’d have known that you hadn’t eaten I’d have had Paul stop and get you something long ago”

“I’m not eating the sub” Niall stated.

“You are even if I have to feed it to you” Liam said with promise before turning to Louis and Harry and starting up a conversation fully intent on ignoring the boy arguing in the seat next to him.

Niall was stunned. What the hell had gotten into his band mates? Up until today none of them had ever paid attention to whether or not he wore a seatbelt in the car and yet today they had argued with him, Louis had tired to buckle him in, and then they forced him into a car seat! Now they were suddenly paying attention to his eating habits? What the hell was going on?

Not only had Liam, Louis and Harry suddenly care about such mundane things but they were acting as though this was all perfectly normal. It was almost like they couldn’t tell they were acting strange. They just didn’t appear to understand how drastically their attitudes had changed. And it wasn’t their attitudes towards each other that had changed, no; it was their attitudes towards Niall, the only sane one of the bunch.

It took less time than Niall would have liked for their food to arrive. He sat there staring at the plate in front of him for a solid ten minutes before he could no longer ignore the pointed stares being sent to him by the other three. “What?”

“Eat” was all Liam said.

Niall huffed and slouched back in the booth. He was hungry, he hadn’t eaten in quite some time and the food smelled really good. He didn’t necessarily have to eat the whole thing. Begrudgingly Niall took a bite out of the sandwich and his rumbling stomach thanked him for it.

Liam watched as Niall ate slowly. He was pleased that he didn’t have to actually force the food into the boy’s mouth; that would not have been pretty. Still as he, Harry and Louis were finishing off their last bites he noted that Niall had stopped eating with half of a sandwich still on the plate. “You need to finish Niall”

Niall glared sideways at Liam, “I’m full” well that wasn’t entirely true but he wasn’t about to be starving with the amount he ate and he planned on ordering room service later that night after the concert.

“I didn’t ask if you were full I said to finish it” Liam stated.

“And I said I’m full” Niall replied, “As in I’m not going to eat anymore”

“There’s no way a half of a meatball sub filled you up” Louis said, “I’ve seen you eat more than that for a snack”

“That’s wonderful” Niall replied, “Doesn’t change the fact that I’m done eating though”

“Niall” Liam warned but he didn’t get any farther as the waiter returned.

“I hope everything was to your liking?” the waiter asked as he started clearing the empty plates.

“Yes” Liam held up Niall’s plate, “but can we get this put in a box to go?”

“Absolutely” the waiter smiled as he walked off.

Niall just rolled his eyes but let it be. It was out of his way for now.

Once the waiter returned Harry paid the check, Liam took the box of leftovers and Niall slid out of the bench. Niall tried to make a beeline straight for the van but Louis was faster. “We’ll meet you in the car” he told the other two as he drug Niall by the hand towards the restrooms.

“Let go of me” Niall insisted though he kept a calm voice and did not try to pull away.

“We’re just going to the restroom Niall” Louis said simply, “It’s still another two and a half hours until we arrive at the venue”

“Yeah, complete waste of time trying to get to that interview. Now that we finally passed traffic we missed the thing and we have to turn around and go back through the traffic just to go three blocks from where we started” Niall complained.

“Just go and then we’ll head back to the van” Louis instructed as he closed the bathroom door.

Niall would have argued this treatment if he didn’t really have to go. He was actually kind of grateful that Louis had reminded him because he hadn’t even thought about it in his haste to get to the van and snag a different seat before the others got there.

Finishing quickly Niall started out the bathroom door. He’d actually made it out into the body of the restaurant before Louis took hold of his hand. “Ready to head out?” Louis asked happily.

“You’re a bastard” Niall sniped as he was walked out of the restaurant. The second they were outside they were once again surrounded by body guards. Naturally Niall thought he’d use this fact to his advantage – plead to them for assistance. It didn’t work. Not a single one of the security team came to Niall’s aid but rather acted as though they hadn’t noticed anything. This just annoyed Niall even more.

“There you are” Harry greeted as they finally made it to the van.

Niall was let in first and he noted that there were only two seats left open, both in the back. Niall made for the one spot that did not have a car seat however before he was even able to sit down Louis had him by the waist and was dragging him towards the little prison.

“NO!” Niall screamed in protest as he tried to find purchase on anything so as to have some type of leverage.

“Now Niall” Louis huffed, “You know the rules”

“NO!” Niall screamed as he thrashed around trying to get out of Louis’ grip.

No sooner had Niall his Louis’ side than Liam and Harry took ahold of his flailing limbs. It only took two more minutes before Niall was trapped in the seat. He started trying to get out of the restraints that were keeping him pinned but they were too tight. There were straps that went over each shoulder and came from either side of his waist and then they clicked together at the buckle, which happened to be located at his crotch. It was a five-point harness and it felt rather snug around him. He could still breath comfortably but he had very little room to move and it frustrated him.

Liam waited until Niall had finally calmed down before handing Louis a tray, “Snap that on would you?”

Louis nodded his head and took the tray from Liam. It was a couple of minutes before Louis managed to figure the thing out but once he had he sat back smiling, rather proud of himself.

Liam took out the left over box and placed it on the tray in front of Niall along with a bottle of water, “Eat”

Seriously? “I’m not hungry” Niall argued.

“Well then you can just sit there until you are” Liam said simply as he turned around, “Oh and if you try to knock it on the floor I’ll just have Paul pick you up a burger and we can start all over”

Niall couldn’t believe it. Liam had lost his mind, it was as simple as that, there was no other possible explanation for it. And judging by the actions of Harry and Louis, they had lost it as well.

Determined to stand his ground and not eat the rest of the sub Niall crossed his arms and pouted. He didn’t have his headphones or his phone or his music, none of the boys would respond to him and there was nothing to do. Forty-five minutes into the drive and Liam finally heard an annoyed huff of “done” coming from the back seat.

Turning around Liam smiled as he saw the left over box was empty, “Good boy” he praised as he reached back to ruffle Niall’s hair and take the box off of the tray.

Niall blushed and scowled at the praise; it was double sided. On one hand it was a compliment on the other it was condescending. “I want my phone”

“Here you are” Harry said cheerily handing over desired item.

Niall snatched it from Harry and ignored the others for the rest of the ride.


	3. Sick

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alright a new chapter. I do have a question for all of you. Would anyone be willing to, I guess you could call it, spot read for me? I just need someone who would be willing to check over my new chapters (for both stories or one don't care) and give opinions. I can't catch everything and I like to have someone to bounce ideas off of. If not that's cool, I get it, trust me I don't have that much free time either but if so just message me. Please. Thank you for your time and enjoy.

When they got to the venue there were fans everywhere and the boys made sure to get Niall out of his car seat before they opened the door, tinted windows were a blessing. Niall was smiling and signing autographs and taking pictures along with the other three however he was never allowed more than arms length away from one of the others and as soon as they were inside the building Louis had taken his hand. No matter how Niall fought he was led, by the hand, to the dressing room and then to the stage, thankfully they were all at least able to stick with their choreography.

The concert was great and everyone had a good time. Once they were all changed out of their concert clothes they fought their way back through the fans taking a few more photos before they were all back in the van.

“Alright Niall” Louis said tiredly, “In you go”

“F…k off” Niall grumbled his good mood quickly slipping away.

“Niall” Liam warned.

“NO” Niall yelled tired of this fight. He just wanted to get back to the hotel, order some room service and then get some sleep grateful that there was no band practice in the morning.

“I’ll get his legs” Harry sighed as he turned around.

Liam, Louis and Harry all quickly grabbed a hold of Niall as they had earlier. In no time at all they had a screaming, struggling Niall strapped securely into the car seat and they pulled off.

Niall slouched back into his seat red-faced, upset and exhausted. Just as Niall had given up the fight the van pulled into it’s parking spot and he was let out.

“You know if you didn’t fight it so much your rides would be much more entertaining” Louis offered as he took his hand.

Niall just glared at the man while struggling to get his hand free. He didn’t ever plan on submitting to the bloody car seat.

Once in the hotel room Harry sighed and started making his way towards the showers while Niall finally got his hand free. The first place Niall went for was the phone stand fully planning to order up some food.

“Alright, Niall” Liam started, “Why don’t you go shower and then I believe it’ll be time for bed”

Niall froze, “What?”

“Shower then bed” Liam repeated.

“Forget it” Niall sniped as he turned around and continued on his way.

“Niall” Liam warned.

“Screw you” Niall replied.

Liam sighed and moved to redirect the stubborn boy. He turned Niall around

and stopped when he saw how flushed Niall’s face was, “Oh baby” he cooed “Why didn’t you say you weren’t feeling well?”

“What?” Niall asked confused. What was Liam on about now?

“No wonder you’ve been acting out today” Liam tried to soothe as he put his hand to Niall’s forehead to check if the boy had a temp.

Niall jerked himself away from Liam’s hand and kept backing up until he felt himself bump into the counter.

“Niall, baby, just hold still” Liam instructed as he tried to check if Niall had a temperature.

“What are you doing?” Niall demanded.

“What’s going on?” Louis questioned as he came over to the two.

“Niall’s sick” Liam informed him whilest trying to get a hold of the slippery boy, “Niall stand still”

“I’m not sick” Niall objected as he made a break for the hotel room door. He could just head down to the restaurant and come back later – after everyone was asleep. That would be best.

Louis was shocked; he hadn’t known Niall was sick. He took a good look at the boy and noted that his face was rather red, that couldn’t be healthy. “Oh baby”

Niall was so confused. Why did Louis and Liam think that he was sick? Why were they calling him baby? “I don’t know what you two are on about but I’m just gonna let you be for a while” He attempted to slip past them but was quickly stopped.

“Here baby” Liam started guiding him over to the couch in the sitting room, “Just sit down”

“I’ll get the thermometer” Louis offered as he started heading out of the room towards one of the bathrooms.

“Will you let me alone” Niall demanded as he tried to sit up only to be pushed back down again by Liam.

“Why didn’t you tell one of us that you weren’t feeling well?” Liam asked somewhere between concern and slight annoyance.

Niall just didn’t understand, “I fell fine” he insisted. And he did. He felt a little tired but that he had to do with the concert and running around on stage for the past few hours. He was hungry but that was because he hadn’t eaten in a while. Otherwise, “I’m not sick”

Liam just sighed and kept the boy pinned to the couch, “Don’t worry baby, there’s no need to pretend any longer. Once Louis gets here we’ll get your temperature, get you a nice hot bath, get you a little cold medicine and then you can go to sleep”

That sounded like torture to Niall, “I’M NOT SICK!”

“Is he still denying it?” Louis asked coming out of the bathroom carrying an array of different items.

“Yeah” Liam sighed, “What’s all that for? I thought you went in for a thermometer”

Liam hesitated, “I did but the normal thermometer was busted so…”

“So what?” Liam asked.

“Well I found another thermometer but I wasn’t sure how to use it so I looked it up online” Louis started.

“I don’t need a thermometer” Niall insisted as he continued to squirm in Liam’s hold.

Liam turned his attention to the boy and frowned, “Baby, are you feeling worse?” he asked noting that Niall’s face was now a little redder than it had been.

“What?” Niall asked stunned. Where had that come from?

“Let’s just take his temperature and see how he’s doing since he’s obviously not going to tell us” Liam said turning to Louis.

“Alright” Louis hedged, “but before we do I need to tell you that this was the only option I had and that it is said to be the most effective way of taking a person’s temperature – gives the most accurate read”

Liam was a bit confused, “What’s with the hesitation? If it’s the best way then it’s what we’ll do”

“Ok then” Louis nodded coming forward, “We need to flip him onto his stomach”

Liam was a bit confused but he attempted to do as asked. Niall on the other hand had a decent idea as to where this was heading and he was most definitely not going to allow it. “Get the f…k off of me you bastards!”

“Language” Liam snapped.

“What is all the yelling about?” Harry asked coming out of the shower.

“Niall’s sick and he won’t let us take his temperature,” Louis explained, “Don’t suppose you’d mind helping us turn him around?”

“Uh…” Harry paused, “Sure”

“Brilliant you get his top half I’ll take the bottom” Liam instructed.

Harry didn’t quite understand what was going on but he did as asked anyway and soon enough they had a screaming, cursing, thrashing boy laid out on his stomach across two laps.

“Now what?” Liam asked looking up to Louis for direction.

Louis sighed, this wasn’t going to be fun. “I just need you two to hold him as still as possible while I do this”

“OK” Harry drawled out as he took a tighter grip on Niall’s upper half and Liam did the same with the lower half.

“Niall” Louis said softly trying to calm the distressed boy, “I know that you don’t feel well and I know that you won’t like this but I have to make sure that you’re alright. I’ll make this as quick and smoothly as possible but I need you to be still for me OK?”

“Screw you” Niall sneered as he doubled his efforts to get away. Unfortunately the two boys holding him down were stronger.

Louis sighed, he knew that this wasn’t going to go well from the beginning but it was only for the best. He was almost tempted to call the whole thing off but taking a look at Niall’s face only confirmed that this was only to help. Niall’s face was beat red, the boy just kept becoming redder and redder.

Louis reached out and pulled down Niall’s shorts and underwear causing the boy to try and buck Liam and Harry off of him. Niall almost made it too, even managed to fall onto the floor that probably wasn’t the best thing for him to do.

Instead of bringing Niall back up to the couch Harry and Liam pinned the screaming boy to the floor and found themselves extremely grateful that they had already told the security staff to ignore any arguments that came from the small blond boy for the time being. That one had took some wheedling.

“Get the f…k off of me!” Niall demanded but found that his movements were severely limited and there was nothing he could do to get out of his current situation.

“Do you have him?” Louis asked the two.

“Yeah” Harry nodded.

“Alright, you’ll need to hold him very still” Louis instructed.

The two boys nodded and watched as Louis took a packet of what looked like Vaseline and smothered some over the bulbed end of a glass thermometer. Both now fully understood what Louis was about to do and couldn’t help but feel bad for the little blond however they weren’t about to call this off. Niall’s face was just so flushed that there was just no way he wasn’t feeling ill. If only the boy would have said something earlier, they could have taken care of everything before it all came to this.

“Now Niall I need you to hold really still” Louis instructed, “This is glass and it can break. I don’t want it to break in you. Do you understand?”

Niall froze. He had clearly lost the fight to get away. He was pinned down on the ground of the common room in their hotel with his pants and underwear around his knees. He felt Louis’ hand separate his cheeks and flushed even more, this was so humiliating. “Please don’t” he whimpered.

Louis felt horrible but this had to be done, “I’m sorry baby. I just need to take your temperature. I’ll make it as painless as possible I swear”

Niall hated this. This entire day had been like one massive nightmare and he just wanted to wake up and find that it was just a dream. Unfortunately that hope died the second he felt the little bulb press against his entrance. He whimpered and tried to push it out but Louis kept up shoving the cold glass in.

“How far in does it need to go?” Liam questioned.

“Well from what I read it said that with a toddler or younger it only needs to go in about an inch however it did suggest that for adults you should go between one and two inches” Louis answered.

“So two inches it is then” Liam said, “Better to be on the safe side”

“Agreed” Harry nodded.

Niall just whimpered as he lost the battle and felt the little stick be forced farther into him. Eventually Louis stopped shoving it in and it just stopped, two inches into him. As soon as the thermometer stopped moving farther into him Niall immediately started trying to push it out but Louis was holding it still.

“Just three more minutes” Louis said softly.

Niall was humiliated, tired, hungry, upset and he couldn’t move. Not knowing what else to do, totally strung out emotionally. Niall did something that he was not proud of, something that he would never admit to, something that he should never be judged for given his current situation. He cried.

It started with small tears but quickly turned heavy. By the time that Louis was finally sliding the thermometer out of him Niall was full on sobbing hysterically.

The instant that the thermometer was out Liam righted Niall’s clothes and gathered the boy in his arms cooing softly at him in hopes of calming the boy down. “It’s alright. You’re all right. You did so well. I’m so proud of you”

Niall tried to tell Liam to get lost, wanted to push away from the older man and run from the room. His plans didn’t workout. No matter how hard he tried he couldn’t summon up the strength to do anything more than give little nudges that did absolutely nothing. His sobbing was so strong that he couldn’t get word one out edgewise. In the end he was stuck in Liam’s grasp.

“Well?” Harry asked Louis after Niall had been let up.

“He doesn’t have a temperature” Louis informed as he started to clean up the supplies.

“Are we sure?” Harry questioned, “I haven’t heard of taking a rectal temperature in ages”

“Well from what I read it’s the most accurate way to get a temperature” Louis informed.

“Really?” Harry asked surprised.

“Yep” Louis confirmed, “And I read that on five different medical websites”

“Well that’s good to know” Liam said softly, cooing at Niall as he did so, “At least we can keep that in mind for future”

“Yeah but we need to get our own supplies because these belong to the hotel” Louis informed.

“You used a hotel thermometer on him!?” Harry exclaimed the germaphobe that he was.

Louis rolled his eyes, “I sterilized it first with alcohol and fire”

“Oh” Harry paused, “Well alright then”

Niall just whimpered throughout this conversation but his crying continued.

“Well I think it’s time for someone to have a nice warm bath and then curl up into a soft bed” Liam said as he stood up with a little blond boy in his arms.

“I’ll draw him a bath” Harry offered.

“I’ll grab his night clothes” Louis said.

Liam carried a still crying Niall into the bathroom with the largest tub. “Baby, you need to calm down for me. Can you do that?”

Niall just ignored Liam and continued sobbing. He started to really struggle though when he felt two other hands start to undress him. Not that Niall succeeded in his protests though, he was quickly stripped and placed into a warm tub. Despite everything he sighed upon settling back. The water felt amazing.

“I knew you’d like this” Louis smiled down at the little boy.

Niall sat back relaxing in the tub. Suddenly he jerked when he felt two hands come into contact with his hair and scalp. “Get off of me!” he demanded as he tried to push away the hands that were both washing him and the ones holding him down.

“Just relax baby” Liam soothed, “We’re just getting you all clean”

“You all are sick” Niall screamed in the faces of the three boys hovering over him as one washed his hair another his body (even the private parts!) and the third person was holding him down.

“It’s alright baby boy” Liam cooed.

“You know if you would have just told us you weren’t feeling well this day would have been a lot easier on you” Louis said.

“It’s no wonder you’ve been so stubborn and grumpy today” Harry sighed, “Just think how much easier this day would have gone if you would have just told us”

Niall shook his head insistently, “I’m not sick!”

Harry, Liam and Louis just shared looks of exasperation, why couldn’t Niall just admit to being ill, things would go so much better if he would. Still one couldn’t really expect a baby to tell them everything now could they?

It was strange really because none of them even really noticed what they were doing or how they were acting. Niall was the only one to realize that something was wrong with the way the boys were treating him. Unfortunately Niall was one person verses three and he was also the smallest.

“Alright were all done there baby” Louis cooed as Harry drained the tub and Liam held out a big fluffy towel, “What do you say we get you dried off and into some nice warm jammies.

At this point in time Niall just didn’t care anymore. He was exhausted both physically and emotionally. He was sick and tired of being naked and humiliated in front of his band mates and just wanted to be clothed.

Harry walked out of the room to turn down Niall’s bed and Louis and Liam just sighed in relief when Niall merely moved as asked and allowed himself to be dried and dressed.

“Here I brought him a cold pill and some water” Harry offered holding out said items.

“Thanks” Liam said taking the items and putting the pill to Niall’s mouth, “Open up baby”

Niall did have the energy to glare here. He didn’t want the pill because “I’m not sick!”

Liam sighed in annoyance, “Open up”

“No” Niall grit out.

Louis immediately took hold of Niall’s face and squeezed his jaw lightly forcing Niall to open his mouth at which time Liam popped the pill in and then poured a little bit of water in.

Liam covered Niall’s mouth, “swallow”

With no other option Niall swallowed the pill, “I’m not sick you bastard”

“Language” Liam snapped, “I promise you won’t like the consequences if you keep it up”

Niall gulped, Liam seemed deadly serious.

“Bedtime” Louis chirped as he took Niall by the shoulders and steered the boy towards the room that had been designated as his.

Niall would have argued but he was exhausted and wanted some time away from the other boys. What better way to fix both problems then by going to bed? “Whatever”

All three boys followed Niall into his room. Liam held back the covers and Harry pushed in a couple of night-lights. Louis gently guided Niall down onto the bed and the tired boy just let himself be laid out. Normally he would argue treatment such as this but it felt like all he’d done that day was argue, he didn’t have any fight left in him. Once he was down Liam covered him and he was quickly tucked in.

“Night baby” Liam whispered, “We’ll see you in the morning”

“Sleep well buddy” Louis said quietly.

“Night Ni Ni” Harry exited flipping off the lights and shutting the door.


	4. Avoiding

Niall’s growling stomach is what awoke him early the next morning. He groaned as he rubbed the sleep from his eyes and took a look at the clock. Eyes widening when he saw it was only five thirty. Niall had to marvel at the fact that he never got up this early when he didn’t have anything going on in the morning. Still though, he didn’t usually go to sleep at nine thirty in the evening either. There was one good fact to being up so early – none of the others were up yet. Smiling to himself, Niall slid out of bed and quickly dressed before slipping out of the hotel room unnoticed. First stop: breakfast.

As Niall sat down at a table in the diner across the street from the hotel, he couldn’t help but let his mind wander to the events of the past day. The boys were being so weird and controlling. It was as though every little thing Niall did was another reason for them to freak out. He just didn’t get it. Something had clearly changed but what? All that he could think of was Zayn’s leaving but that was over a week ago now. Thinking back on it Niall would admit that he did notice a few subtle changes in the boy’s attitudes over the past week but nothing that he thought would ever lead to his current predicament.

About a day or two after Zayn left Liam had come onto the bus after a late concert and refused to let Niall go to sleep without having showered first. It had seemed a little odd but really it hadn’t been anything major so Niall had just done as asked and forgotten about it, after figuring Liam just didn’t want to sleep under a guy who reeked of B.O. Four days after Zayn left and Niall had noticed that Harry was taking a little time to himself each day or that he’d sit on a different couch than the rest of them while Niall always seemed to be finding himself pressed up next to Louis, and sometimes sandwiched between Louis and Liam. Again Niall hadn’t thought anything of this just figuring that Harry needed a little space and Louis wanted some extra comfort. He hadn’t minded providing either boy with what they needed.

Yesterday though, everything had gotten way out of hand. Why had Louis cared that he hadn’t wanted to wear a seatbelt? Louis had never cared before and had in fact refused to wear a seatbelt a couple of times himself so what did it matter that Niall was merely doing the same? And not only that, but then Liam had asked Paul to get a car seat and then forced Niall into it! Why? And then there was the whole thing with the hand holding because he’d ‘run off’, I mean really, how was walking into a restaurant, with security mind, running off? How was it unsafe in any way? Then when they were coming out of the restaurant security did nothing! They ignored his pleas entirely! Why? Had the boys done something to make security ignore Niall? And how had Liam convinced Paul to buy a car seat? The biggest concern Niall had though, was what had happened after the concert. Why had the boys thought that he was sick? Niall knew for certain that he felt just fine, a little tired and hungry sure, but he’d just been running around on stage for two or more hours, who wouldn’t be tired and hungry after that? He shivered as he recalled what they’d done to him then. He just couldn’t get himself to admit it even if it was only to himself. And to top it off they planned on buying their own thermometer! Just for Niall! What the hell?!

Niall was ripped from his thoughts as he heard his phone go off for what was probably the twelfth time since he’d gotten his food. Looking down he noted that it was Liam who had called him this time. He ignored the call and slid his phone back into his pocket as he finished his breakfast and paid his bill. Now that he was done eating what did he want to do? One thing was certain; he wasn’t going back to the hotel room. There was nothing on the schedule until an interview at two that afternoon, glancing down at his phone he saw he had roughly six hours to kill.

With few other options Niall decided to just head down to the venue. He would text Paul where he was around one so that he could be picked up for the interview, but otherwise he was going to be incommunicado.

As the day wore on Niall eventually had to shut his phone off because it was ringing so much. By the time he turned it back on again he’d ignored or missed thirteen calls from Harry, twenty-seven calls from Liam and forty-eight calls from Louis. And that’s not counting the endless texts he’d received as well. He hated that he had to go and finally talk to one of them knowing that they would be pissed, but he couldn’t miss the interview.

With fear and nervousness coursing through his veins, Niall punched in a familiar number and hit call holding his breath until he heard a well-known voice on the other line.

“Hello?” Paul asked.

“Hey, Paulie,” Niall greeted hesitantly.

“Niall?” Paul asked in slight disbelief, “Where the hell are you. The boys are worried sick.”

Niall gave a guilty laugh, “I’m at the venue, care to swing by and pick me up on the way to the interview?”

Niall could hear Paul huff on the other side of the line, “I’ll be right there. Be standing by the door, ready to go in ten minutes.”

With that the other line went dead and Niall felt as though he’d soon be following suit. Still, he trudged up to the side entrance where they had been entering and exiting the building since they got there, and sure enough the van pulled up with two minutes to spare.

As soon as Niall opened the door he could see that the others were pissed. Well, no, that was too nice a word. They were absolutely furious. He was dead.

Niall gulped as he climbed into the van and slid the door shut behind him looking around for a place to sit that wasn’t the item he’d come to call the ‘torture device’. Sadly he didn’t even get a chance.

Harry, Liam and Louis all had decent practice at getting Niall situated in his car seat by this point and it only took ninety seconds before the screaming and thrashing boy was securely in place. As soon as the deed was done, Liam knocked on the dividing panel before turning around and stilling the blonde with a deadly glare.

“Where have you been?” Liam hissed out.

Niall froze, he had never seen Liam so angry before. “I just… wen… went out for… some break… breakfast and then… to hang out with… with the guys.”

“And you couldn’t have called us and told us because?” Liam asked icily.

“Well…” Niall hedged, “I just… kinda… needed a bit of a break from you guys.”

“Excuse me?” Liam asked, “You needed a break?”

“Yeah,” Niall admitted voice strengthening some as he recalled exactly why he needed the break, “You three have become overbearing dictators and I needed some time to myself.”

Liam sputtered, he just couldn’t believe the words coming out of Niall’s mouth, “You snuck out of the hotel room without so much as leaving a note telling us where you were going, you ignored our calls and texts, you damn near gave us all heart attacks all because you needed a break!”

Niall started to feel a little guilty there, “It was never my intent to worry you.”

“Well guess what kiddo,” Louis snarked. “You did.”

“But don’t you worry,” Liam assured. “We’ve seen to it that you won’t be able to from now on.”

“What?!” Niall asked in concern but he was ignored as Liam turned around to face the front and Louis pulled out his phone.

Niall tried to get someone’s attention but it was a fruitless effort and he eventually sagged back in his seat pouting. They still had about fifteen minutes until they got to the radio station for the interview and he was bored. With nothing else to do Niall pulled his phone out of his pocket planning on pulling up a new game he’d downloaded. Before he even got the phone open Louis, snatched it out of his hand.

“Give that back.” Niall demanded.

“You can just sit there quietly for a little while,” Louis informed before handing Niall’s phone up to Liam and then turning his attention to his own screen.

Niall huffed at this. What was up with the boys? Why were they treating him like this? Shaking his head in frustration Niall begrudgingly turned to stare out the window and deal with the incessant boredom that came from silent car rides with no phone and nothing to do.

After the interview Niall found himself forced back into the car seat as they headed for the venue. He had originally been a little worried that he would be bored once again but he needn’t have been. Liam was more than happy to sit next to him and lecture him on the ‘error of his ways’ for the entire trip. Niall had never been so relieved to see a parking lot in his life.

The concert went well, everyone had a good time and Niall felt as though he was back amongst his best mates once again as they laughed and joked with one another. He was having such a good time that he had let himself foolishly forget about all that had happened up until the point where he was strapped into a confining seat and the van started to move.

“This is getting ridiculous,” Niall groused as he crossed his arms over his chest and glared at those around him.

“What’s getting ridiculous love?” Louis asked as he stared at his phone and started running his right hand through Niall’s hair. Niall tried to shake Louis’ hand off but there wasn’t a lot of space for him to move around to do so.

“This bloody seat.”

“One.” Liam said from in front.

“What?” Niall asked confused.

“That’s strike one.” Liam repeated.

“Strike one of what?” Niall asked annoyed. What was Liam on about this time?

“You have three chances to stop cursing. If I get to three then you will not like the consequences.” Liam explained.

Niall’s jaw dropped. What the hell had gotten into Liam? What had gotten into all three of them? This was insane! His friends had utterly and completely lost it, that’s all there was to it. Maybe he would be able to find a good place for them in a nut house? That would be a more appropriate setting for these three right about now.

In all honesty Niall was very tempted to cuss Liam out for the whole three strike comment, but at this point he had a bad feeling that Liam would hold true to his word. Niall really didn’t want to find out what Liam would do if he got to strike three. Maybe when Liam was less… mental. Then Niall would sit down and talk this out with him. Get the man to see the obvious stupidity of the current situation.

It didn’t take much longer before the van stopped again and they all got out at the hotel happy to be done for the night. It was still relatively early and Niall planned on getting a quick shower and going out for some food and fun. “Hey you guys want to go out tonight?”

Louis chuckled, Harry seemed to have missed the question and Liam just quirked an eyebrow and gave a slightly disapproving look but no one answered the question. Shrugging Niall just opened the door to the room and headed towards one of the two bathrooms available.

“Woah there.” Liam said taking hold of Niall’s arm.

“What?” Niall asked confused. “Did you want to go out?”

“No.” Liam shook his head.

Niall just shrugged and tried to pull himself out of Liam’s grip.

“Not so fast,” Liam said pulling Niall back towards him. “You’re not going out either.”

“That’s not your decision.” Niall informed.

“Well it’s certainly not yours.” Louis said coming into the conversation.

Niall couldn’t believe this. What had brought this one on? “Look,” he tried to be patient. “It is my decision whether or not I go out just as it is your decision whether or not you go out. I don’t make your choice for you and you can’t make my choice for me. Understand?”

Liam just snorted and started dragging Niall towards the bathroom that Harry didn’t go into. “Grab him some night clothes for me will you Lou?”

“Sure thing.” Louis agreed.

Niall struggled against Liam’s hold but to no avail. It really sucked being the shortest, skinniest and weakest one. Quicker than he’d have liked Niall found himself sitting naked in a bathtub with Liam and Louis hovering over him.

Much like the night before one of the boys held him down while the other washed and conditioned his hair and then they switched. In the end Niall felt completely embarrassed and his cheeks were aflame.

Louis finished washing Niall’s body and looked up to see that the boy was red faced once again. “Oh baby,” he cooed. “do you still feel sick?”

“What?!” Niall asked in alarm. Why did Louis think he was sick? What sign could he have possibly given to make anyone think that he was sick? “NO!”

“It’s alright love,” Liam assured. Boy, Niall’s temperature could really just jump out at you when it wanted to. When they started the bath Niall’s face hadn’t been anywhere near this red and yet now it was a rather deep red in color.

“Do you hurt anywhere?” Louis questioned

“NO.” Niall insisted.

“Does your tummy hurt?” Liam asked.

“NO!” Niall yelled.

Liam turned to Louis, “You think he has a fever?”

“I don’t know,” Louis shrugged. “He didn’t yesterday but his body feels a little warm to me right now.”

Liam leaned forward and tried to place a palm on Niall’s forehead, but the boy kept moving himself away. Sighing as he realized that Niall wasn’t about to let Liam check his temperature he turned and called out to the living room, “Hey Haz, can you come and help us for a second?”

Niall tensed at that, he couldn’t think of any reason that they would need Harry to come in and help unless they knew that Niall would put up a massive fight. The only thing he would fight against enough for that would be… “I’M NOT SICK!”

“Temperature again?” Harry asked coming into the bathroom.

“Afraid so.” Liam sighed as he lifted a struggling Niall out of the bathtub.

Niall tried to make a break for it but Harry was right in the doorway and there was no possible chance at success. It took an embarrassingly short amount of time before he found himself pinned to the ground on his stomach with Louis spreading his cheeks.

Niall cringed as he felt the Vaseline be applied to his entrance. That was nothing though, to the strangled whimper he let out when he felt the cold, glass bulb enter him for the second time in two nights.

Liam tried to soothe Niall throughout the experience, but the boy just kept crying. As soon as the little stick was out he wrapped his baby in a towel and sat the boy in his lap.

“I’m heading out.” Harry informed as he stood up and left the bathroom.

“See you later.” Liam called over his shoulder.

“Why does he get to leave!” Niall demanded to know.

“Shh baby,” Liam hushed. “Just relax.”

Niall was furious. He had said he wanted to go out tonight and he’d even invited the others. But no, Liam had stopped him, stripped him, bathed him and then… well he cried just thinking about it, the experience still too fresh. However Harry, someone who’s younger than him, gets to do whatever he bloody well wants. How is that even fair! How do Liam and Louis justify that to themselves?

“Well it looks like he has a slight temperature.” Louis informed.

“How bad is it?” Liam asked in concern as he clutched Niall a little tighter.

“It’s 100.1.” Louis said.

Niall rolled his eyes, “That’s nothing.”

“It’s higher than it should be.” Liam stated.

“You also just took me out of hot water.” Niall said slowly as though Liam and Louis were too stupid to understand.

“This isn’t a debate, Niall.” Louis snapped.

“Can you order him some soup while I get him dressed for bed?” Liam asked as he stood up with Niall in his arms.

“Absolutely.” Louis agreed hopping out of the room to order supper for them all.

Niall wriggled in Liam’s hold but never managed to get loose, in the end it was Liam who dressed him and Niall allowed it for the sole purpose of wanting to be covered up. Liam was relieved that Niall didn’t fight him when he dressed the boy in a pair of sweats and a long sleeve shirt. Liam had tried to find PJs but it didn’t seem that Niall owned more than one pair and last nights were dirty.

Supper was a quiet affair. Niall wasn’t happy about receiving soup but he was hungry and it was something he would eat so he didn’t complain. After the food was finished, Niall got up and plopped himself down on the couch, fully intent on watching a few hours of television. He saw no real need to go to bed at a decent hour tonight since they had an off day tomorrow. Liam and Louis had other plans for Niall however.

“Alright baby time for bed.” Liam said coming over and flipping off the television.

“Not tired.” Niall stated as he hit the power button on the remote.

“This isn’t a choice, Ni.” Louis softly informed the boy as he pried the remote from the blonde’s hands.

“It’s not your decision.” Niall spat back.

Liam sighed, he’d had enough of this. “You’re sick and it’s late. For you it’s bedtime.” and with that he plucked the boy up off of the couch and carried him to his room.

“PUT ME DOWN!” Niall demanded.

“Alright.” Liam agreed.

True to his word Liam did put Niall down, on his bed.

“Now you sleep well. Liam and I will check on you in the morning.” Louis said softly as he helped Liam to push Niall down and tuck the squirming boy in.

“Good night little one.” Liam said gently as he flipped the lights off and shut the door.

The instant the boys were gone Niall yanked the covers off and marched to the door, fully intent on leaving the hotel and finding a place to have some fun. His plan lasted for all of two minutes until he realized that he couldn’t open the door.

Turning on the lights Niall saw a white plastic cage secured to the door knob, what? He tried to turn the knob around it, under it and through it and then when that didn’t work he tried to pry the thing off. No success.

After a solid half hour of trying to break free of the room the door suddenly opened on its own. Niall was elated at first, until he saw an angry Liam right in front of him.

“You’re supposed to be in bed.”

“What the hell is this thing?”

“Two.” Liam hissed.

Niall gulped, “What is it?”

“It’s a child lock” Liam answered simply as he picked Niall up and carried him back to bed. “It’s to keep little boys from opening doors that they shouldn’t be opening.”

“And why is it on my door then?” Niall demanded to know.

Liam finished tucking a struggling Niall into bed and gave the boy an exasperated look, “It’s so that you don’t disappear on us again.”

Niall wasn’t even given a chance to respond before Liam was gone, the room was dark aside from the faint glow of the nightlights and the door was shut. He groaned in irritation as he slammed his fists into the bed, he wasn’t gonna get out of this room tonight.


	5. Punishments

Niall had tried to go to sleep but he wasn’t tired, it was too early to go to bed. He lay in his bed for a full hour before he got up again. Niall listened at the door and waited for everyone else to go to sleep before he flicked the lights on. He sat down and studied the white cage that held him hostage in his own hotel room. It was only made of plastic but it was a thick layer of plastic. There were no tabs or buttons that he could push in or out in order to make it open. As far as he could see there was no way to slide it off of the doorknob. Really, he was only left with one option – he’d have to break it off.

Searching the room for something that he could use to break the plastic cage off of the door Niall found nothing. He was about to call it quits when he slumped back against the wall and hit something hard. Jerking around Niall saw the one thing that just might help him, the nightlight. Quickly he yanked the object from its socket and used the pronged end to try and pry the plastic cage from around the doorknob.

Niall worked all night long. He only had to pause twice and turn the lights off when he heard noise outside of his door. Thankfully no one came in to check on him, and soon enough the noisemaker would quiet down and Niall would get back to work.

At eight past six the next morning Niall was grinning from ear to ear as his door swung open. He hurried to dress and then slipped out of the room turning off the lights and shutting the door behind him, lest someone become suspicious. They had the day off today and Niall was determined to spend it away from the boys so that hopefully they would calm down and come to their senses. He doubted it would work but a little wishful thinking never hurt anyone.

Thinking it best to keep the lights off so that he didn’t wake anyone prematurely, Niall started slinking through the strange hotel room in the dark. He’d actually made it about halfway to the door before the flaws in his plan became apparent. Niall stepped on a squishy foot rest and earned an irritated cry in return that, unfortunately, was loud enough to rouse anyone sleeping within a hundred feet.

Instantly lights flooded the room and Niall was able to see that it wasn’t a foot rest he’d stepped on, it was Harry. A rather annoyed looking Harry, if the look on the man’s face was anything to go by.

“Niall!” Liam yelled making Niall jump a foot in the air.

Niall put on a brave face and laughed nervously, “Hey Liam. What’s got you up so early?”

Liam just couldn’t believe the audacity of the boy standing before him, “What are you doing out of your room?”

“Wasn’t tired.” Niall said.

“He broke the child lock.” Louis informed from his position crouched down by Niall’s door.

Liam ran a hand over his face; it was far too early for this. “And how did you break the lock might I ask?”

“Wasn’t all that difficult.” Niall shrugged, “I think it’s a bit cheap really.”

“Do you now?” Louis asked.

“Yep.” Niall nodded.

“And was this nightlight cheap too?” Louis questioned as he held up the mutilated nightlight that Niall had used to break the child lock.

Niall almost cringed. Well, in for a penny in for a pound. “Most definitely.”

While Niall and Louis had been talking Liam had moved next to Niall. “So let’s just clarify,” He started causing the blonde boy to jump in surprise at the close proximity. “You used your nightlight and destroyed it in order to break the child lock that had been placed on the door specifically to keep you from sneaking out. In the process of sneaking out you trampled Harry. Have I left anything out?”

Niall gulped, that was a long list of transgressions.

“I think you’ve got it all Liam.” Louis agreed.

Liam nodded, “I thought so. Now how do you suggest we deal with this latest bout of misbehavior?”

That sent all of Niall’s alarms blaring. “You don’t do a f…ing thing because it’s none of your damn business.”

“Three.” Liam replied. “But we’ll deal with your cursing in a moment. Right now you have earned yourself ten spanks for breaking the nightlight, ten spanks for breaking the child lock and five spanks for stepping on Harry.”

“What?!” Niall screeched as Liam grasped his arm and started dragging him towards the couch. “No f…ing way. This is not happening!”

Niall kicked and screamed all the way to the couch. He’d almost broken free a couple of times but unfortunately for him Liam was bigger, stronger and determined. With embarrassing ease Niall soon found himself face down across Liam’s lap.

“Let me up!” Niall demanded.

“You have earned this spanking Niall.” Liam stated as he let the first swat fall.

Niall gasped in shock and a bit of pain as the spanking started. “You bastard!”

“Language.” Liam snapped.

Wasting no further time Liam starts spanking Niall with earnest. Since it is the boy’s first spanking Liam leaves Niall’s sleep pants on, they’re thin enough anyways that the boy will still feel every strike.

Niall just couldn’t believe what was happening to him. Liam was spanking him! Liam! And it bloody hurt. He was determined not to cry though; he wasn’t going to give them the satisfaction. His resolved lasted all of ten strikes. By the fifteenth strike Niall was crying steadily and his breath was hitched. At the eighteenth strike he started to plead, beg, promise to be good, anything for the spanking to stop, for the pain to stop. By strike twenty-five he had gone limp over Liam’s lap and was full on sobbing.

Liam breathed a sigh of relief when the spanking finally came to a close. He hated punishing his baby but Niall had to learn that he couldn’t break things or step on people in an attempt to sneak out.

As soon as the spanking was over Liam righted Niall and let the boy curl up in his lap as he rubbed Niall’s back soothingly. “You did well baby.” Liam cooed, “You’re forgiven.”

Niall just shook his head. He didn’t think that Liam had any right to have spanked him, and if anyone needed to be forgiven it was Liam for having spanking Niall. But Niall wasn’t about to say that, lest he end up back over Liam’s knees for another round. Instead Niall ignored Liam and buried his head in the older man’s chest. Was it strange that he sought comfort from the same person who had just caused him pain? He didn’t know and he wasn’t in the mood to figure it out just yet.

Liam waited patiently for Niall to stop crying. He needed to punish Niall for the cursing still and he would rather not do that while his baby was in tears. As he waited Niall out he motioned for Louis to go and get the items needed. Louis nodded his understanding and left, almost bumping into Harry who was heading towards his own room in order to get some more sleep.

Eventually Niall’s crying tapered off and he started to move away from Liam intent on going to get dressed and find somewhere else to be for the day.

“Whoa there baby.” Liam said as he tightened his grip on Niall. “We still have something to discuss.”

Niall gave Liam a confused look, “You’ve already beat my ass. What more could we possibly have to talk about?”

Liam glared, “Your language.”

“I’m not in the mood for this Liam.” Niall shook his head, “Let me up!”

“Whether or not you’re in the mood for this or not is irrelevant.” Liam said. “You were warned that if you didn’t stop cursing there would be consequences. Well guess what Niall? Now there are consequences.”

Niall gulped and struggled to get away from Liam wanting to avoid another spanking. Liam held him steady though and motioned for Louis to come over. Louis wasted no time in slipping the rubber into Niall’s mouth before securing the clasp at the back of Niall’s head.

Niall froze and reached up to feel what had just been secured in his mouth. He couldn’t believe it. Liam and Louis had strapped a dummy onto him! “Get this out!” he demanded but it didn’t work. The words only came out as strangled garbles around the dummy. Still, that didn’t stop Niall from saying every single curse word that he knew and promising a long list of future pains for the older two.

Liam and Louis waited out Niall’s tantrum knowing that if they tried to talk to the boy now it would only encourage the behavior. Slowly Niall’s garbles tapered off and the boy just sat there exhausted and humiliated.

“Niall.” Liam said, getting the boy’s attention. “You will wear this dummy for one week when we are not in public. You have shown that you are unable to keep yourself from cursing so therefore you will not talk unless Louis or I allow it. After the week you will again have three strikes. The strikes start over every week. Nod if you understand.”

Niall had been listening to Liam with a mixture of anger and humiliation. He just couldn’t believe this. He hated it. What gave Liam and Louis the right to do this to him?! At this point in time though Niall knew there was only one answer that would get him away from these two and allow him time to try and cut this stupid thing off. He nodded.

“Good boy.” Louis praised.

“Well.” Liam clapped his hands together around Niall. “What do you two say to some breakfast?”

“I’ll call room service.“ Louis offered jumping up.

“I’ll get Niall dressed then.” Liam stated standing up and bringing Niall along with him.

Niall did not like the idea of being dressed by Liam, but knew that if he wanted to get any time to himself then he had to cooperate for now. At least until this bloody dummy came out.

Liam laid Niall down on the bed and rummaged around in the boy’s bags looking for some clean clothes that would be appropriate for a day of rest. “You don’t seem to have packed very well baby.”

Niall looked over at Liam and shook his head. Sometimes that man could be so dense. Normally he would just tell Liam what he wanted. Well, no, normally he’d dress himself. But if he could talk then he would have just told Liam what he wanted to wear. Since he couldn’t talk he got up off the bed and plucked out a gray tank and a pair of blue jean shorts.

“No.” Liam said pulling the items out of Niall’s hands. “It is much too cold for shorts and a tank.”

Niall didn’t agree. He knew what he wanted to wear and there was nothing more to it. Instead of listening to Liam Niall took the clothes back and started dressing himself.

Liam was becoming tired of Niall’s refusal to listen to him. He yanked the clothes from the boy’s hands, landed a swift smack to his bum and then laid him back down on the bed and proceeded to dress the teary eyed boy in the last clean pair of sweats and a t-shirt. “You’ll just have to borrow one of my sweaters until we get you some more.”

Niall shook his head no but he was ignored. Liam carried Niall into his own room and pulled out a dark blue sweater and slipped it over the little one’s head. “Much better.”

Liam then left Niall on the bed as he proceeded to dress himself. Niall took this opportunity to try and slip out of the room and find a pair of scissors. He didn’t make it.

“Oh no baby.” Liam scolded lightly scooping Niall up. “You stay right here with me. Wouldn’t want you wondering off now would we?”

Niall pounded his fists into the bed in frustration. He wanted away from Liam and Louis. How hard was that to understand?

Liam ignored Niall’s mini tantrum as he finished getting dressed. When he was done he grabbed a small hand towel from the bathroom and wiped up the drool from around his baby’s mouth.

Niall flushed with embarrassment. This stupid dummy kept his mouth open enough that drool slipped out. The only way he could stop this from happening was if he sucked on the damn thing. He had a choice to make. Either he could suck the dummy or he could have Louis and Liam wiping drool from around his mouth for the rest of the week. Well, really, the choice wasn’t hard just embarrassing.

Louis smiled when he saw Niall sucking on the dummy; it was so cute. “Breakfast is served.”

“Wonderful.” Liam said. “Now Niall. I am going to take the dummy out so that you can eat, however after breakfast its going right back in. If you curse during breakfast then you will get five spanks for every curse word. Do you understand?”

Niall’s eyes were wide as saucers when he nodded his understanding. Liam took the nod as compliance and removed the dummy.

“Eat up.” Louis instructed as he placed a plate of eggs, toast and bacon in front of the small boy.

Niall looked down at his plate and then up at Liam and Louis. He would love to cuss them out. To scream at them until he was red in the face about how mental they were and then storm out of the room. He couldn’t though. Liam and Louis had placed him at the only seat that was against a corner and they were both between him and the door. Niall doubted that he’d make if five steps before he was caught and most likely spanked again. He didn’t want another spanking, his first one still hurt plenty thank you very much.

Begrudgingly Niall ate his meal knowing that his stomach, at least, was getting something beneficial from this. As soon as he finished eating he snapped his mouth shut and curled up in a ball on his chair. He brought his legs up to his chest and wrapped his arms around them while burying his face in his knees.

Liam and Louis sighed when they saw the way Niall had positioned himself. They knew why he had done it but it wouldn’t stop them from putting the dummy right back into the boy’s mouth. But they would wait until after they had finished eating before they did so.

Once breakfast was over and the plates were out in the hall Louis moved to Niall’s side and slowly pried the boy’s arms from around his legs.

“Niall you know you have to use the dummy.” Liam stated.

Niall shook his head no furiously as he fought against Louis who was pulling his legs down.

“Niall, you earned this punishment.” Louis said.

“NO!” Niall screamed when Louis pulled his legs down fully exposing his face.

Instantly Liam had the dummy pressed into Niall’s mouth and Louis had it secured at the back of Niall’s head. Niall shook his head violently trying to knock them off but with no success. Sooner than he’d ever like to admit Niall was once again unable to speak because of a piece of rubber taking up all the space in his mouth.

With no other options Niall just started crying. He was tired, upset, still in pain from the spanking and just wanted this day to end.

Louis scooped Niall up and comforted his little boy. He hated to see Niall cry but knew that there was little he could do to end the tears other than remove the dummy, but that wouldn’t teach Niall anything.

“You’re alright baby.” Louis cooed. “Everything will be alright.”

Louis continued to walk around the room bouncing Niall and whispering sweet nothings into his ear until the boy had finally calmed down to nothing more than hiccups.

“There now,” Liam said coming over. “Everything will be alright.”

Niall didn’t believe them. As far as he could tell nothing would be all right so long as they were like this. Nothing would be all right until they woke up and started treating him like the twenty-one year old that he was. Unfortunately he didn’t see that happening anytime soon.

After everyone had calmed down Liam pulled out in the avengers while Louis sat down with Niall on the couch. Soon enough Niall found himself comfortably squished between Liam and Louis as the movie started. At first Niall attempted to get up and find some way to remove the dummy but the other two were stronger and he had no chance of getting away unless they allowed it – they didn’t. Knowing that struggling was useless at this point Niall slouched back, sucked the dummy and watched the movie.

One movie and three games of FIFA later and it was time for lunch. Once again the dummy was removed and Niall was allowed to eat on his own but the same warning was given. As soon as he was done eating Niall had tried to slip past Harry and go to the bathroom but was stopped with embarrassing ease and placed back in his chair.

The inevitable struggle to force the dummy back into Niall’s mouth took a total of ten minutes. It then took a subsequent thirty-eight minutes before Niall finally calmed down and his tears stopped.

“I think it’s time for little boys to take a nap.” Liam said once Niall had ceased his crying.

Niall shook his head adamantly at that but it didn’t matter. Liam had decided that Niall needed a nap therefore he was going to lay Niall down for a nap. Niall had almost resigned himself to his fate of being trapped in his room for an hour or so – at least he’d have time to try and pry the dummy off – until he saw what awaited him. Oh hell no!


	6. NO!

The second Niall laid eyes on where Liam was planning to put him the boy started vigorously struggling and shaking his head no. He didn’t want to be put in that thing. Liam kept ignoring him though and continued to walk towards the cage of a bed. It was unbelievable really, the boys failed to lock Niall in a room so they planned to lock him in a bed – it was madness.

The closer they got to the cage the more Niall fought against it. Eventually Niall got desperate and started pounding as hard as he could on Liam’s back. All that action earned him were two hard smacks to his backside. Shocked by the punishment he’d received Niall gasped and stilled.

What happened next was not something that Niall had ever planned on. It was not something that Niall had ever wanted to do in a million years. It was utterly humiliating and disgusting.

Niall blamed the boys for the fact that it occurred. If he had been allowed to move around freely today this wouldn’t have happened. If Harry had let him leave the table at lunch this wouldn’t have happened. Unfortunately for Niall his movements had been restricted today and he had not been allowed to leave the table at lunch.

The shock of the swats he had received combined with a desperate need that had been brought on by not having gone in over twelve hours and a full bladder. Niall had done the worst thing he could have possibly done in his opinion. He’d pissed himself and not only that but all down Liam’s shirt as well.

Liam stopped when he felt something warm and wet start to cover the front of his shirt. It took him a moment to realize what it meant. He felt so foolish.

“Oh baby, it’s alright” Liam soothed a crying Niall. He hadn’t meant for this to happen. He should have listened to Louis earlier but wanted to give Niall a little time to settle into things first.

Niall was thoroughly embarrassed. He couldn’t believe what he had done, couldn’t believe something like this had happened to him. He was sobbing and doing his best to spit out apologies from around the dummy that was still strapped into his mouth.

Liam bounced Niall around, shushing him until the boy finally calmed down enough to respond. “Hey, it’s alright little one,” he cooed. “How about we get you all cleaned up?”

Niall nodded at that idea. Yes, he wanted to be cleaned up. He wanted to get out of this humiliating situation and pretend like it never happened.

“Ok baby,” Liam assured. “We’ll get you all clean.” Liam headed out of the room with Niall in search of Louis.

“I thought you were putting him down?” Louis asked upon seeing the two in the living room.

Liam sighed, he hated to admit when Louis was right about something. “It seems as though… I may have been… a bit… incorrect about a certain topic and was hoping you could help me clean up our boy.”

Louis grinned from ear to ear. “I’m sorry? Are you saying that I was right?”

“Yes.”

“Which would mean that you were…?”

Liam gritted his teeth. “Wrong.”

“What was that?”

“Wrong.”

“Sorry,” Louis smiled. “Missed it. Could you repeat yourself?”

“Wrong.”

“Just once more.”

Liam was becoming seriously annoyed. “This is the last time. I was wrong.”

“Glad to hear it.” Louis said giddily. “ I’ll gather what we need and meet you in the bathroom.”

Liam shook his head in irritation as he walked towards the bathroom with the baby. “Louis can be a real nuisance sometimes can’t he?”

Niall was thoroughly confused as to what the conversation had been all about. Other than the obvious that Louis was right and Liam was wrong on something Niall couldn’t make heads or tails of the entire discussion. When Liam asked him a question he just shot the man an exasperated look given that there was no way for him to respond.

Liam didn’t seem to mind Niall’s silence as he just continued to carry the boy into the bathroom and strip him down while filling the tub with warm water.

Niall stayed still while Liam deprived him of his wet clothing and lowered him into the warm water. As sad as it was to say, he had become somewhat used to this situation by now. While he despised having his private areas washed for him he did, reluctantly, somewhat, kind of, possibly like having his head massaged for him as the shampoo and conditioner were worked in.

Liam had removed the back of the pacifier strap only to wash Niall’s hair but held his hand over the front so that the boy couldn’t spit it out and made sure to reclasp it as soon as he was finished. It annoyed Niall greatly but there was little he could to about it, no matter how hard he’d tried he couldn’t remove Liam’s hand.

Liam quickly got Niall bathed and dried off. He the laid the boy out over a towel on the bathroom floor just as Louis was walking back into the room.

“Is my timing perfect or what?” Louis asked cheekily as he sat down next to Liam and Niall.

Liam rolled his eyes. “Let’s just get little Niall dressed and down for his nap.”

“Very well.” Louis agreed.

Niall lay still knowing that it would do him no good to argue with them about having to take a nap. He could just spend that time working on getting out of the cage and then removing the dummy that was strapped in his mouth. Once that was done he planned on slipping out of the hotel room and going to the front desk to book a different one for just himself. Hopefully the boys would all calm down if he wasn’t around them.

“I told you we should have put him in one first thing this morning.” Louis scolded from somewhere out of Niall’s line of sight. “He’s just too little not to have one.”

What? Niall didn’t understand. What was he ‘too little’ not to have? Curiously, he tried to sit up as best he could from his position.

Liam noticed Niall trying to get up and pushed the boy back down, keeping a hand on his chest. “You just lay still baby, Louis and I are going to get you all taken care of”

“We’ll make sure you don’t have to worry about having accidents again bud” Louis assured.

Niall didn’t understand what the two of them were on about. Of course he wouldn’t piss himself again, he’d be getting out of this room and away from these two nutters. It’s not as though he lost control on a regular basis, it only happened because Louis and Liam had refused to let him go to the bathroom all day that it had occurred in the first place.

Before Niall could really comprehend what Louis and Liam had meant he found himself looking at his feet. A strange possibility came to him but it was just too plain crazy to be true. Liam and Louis couldn’t possibly be…

Louis had just started sprinkling the baby powder when Niall began to fight.

“Niall, stay still” Liam ordered as he struggled to keep ahold of the boy’s ankles and keep him pinned down at the same time.

“Niall, I’m almost done just be still” Louis said as he tired to put the last of the baby powder on and rub it in.

Neither of the older two were having much success for Niall was putting up the fight of his life. The blonde did not want to wear a nappy and there was no way he’d ever be still. This was just the last straw.

Liam was barely able to duck out of the way of the punch Niall threw at him. Unfortunately in doing so he loosened his grip on the boy’s ankles allowing Niall to successfully kick Louis in the knee.

Louis reeled back and clutched his knee is both pain and shock.

“Niall!” Liam exclaimed.

Niall’s feet were instantly staring him in the face again as he felt fifteen successive and extremely painful swats land on his unprotected backside.

Liam felt bad as he heard Niall start to cry again but the boy had deserved those swats.

Louis collected himself and quickly finished diapering the rosy red rear while the blonde was being compliant. As soon as he was done Liam picked the baby up and started walking out of the bathroom, bouncing a little. Louis hung back to clean up the mess.

Niall just couldn’t stop crying. This was humiliating. In the past hour he’d pissed himself because the boys wouldn’t let him use the restroom then, he was bathed by Liam and Louis tried to diaper him. Liam had spanked him in the diapering position and then Louis had taped a nappy around his waist. Now Liam was bouncing him like a baby and he still had a dummy strapped in his mouth!

Liam was growing concerned at the sound to Niall’s breathing. The boy was crying so hard that he just couldn’t seem to suck in enough breath around the dummy. As much as Liam knew that the dummy was a punishment Niall had to be able to breath so he removed the dummy from around Niall’s head.

Niall sucked in a massive breath as soon as the dummy was out but he still wasn’t able to cease his tears. He didn’t know if he ever would. This was just too much, the boys were doing too much. Why were they doing this? What happened? Why him? He just didn’t understand.

Liam was beginning to grow worried with how heavily and how long Niall was crying. He was doing everything he could think of to calm his baby down but it just didn’t seem to be working.

Louis came out of the bathroom and saw how stressed Liam seemed to be. He went into Niall’s hotel room and pulled a blanket out of the travel cot, bringing it back out and laying it over his baby boy. Niall had to be cold considering he was wearing nothing but a nappy and it was also meant to be a comfort, to help stem the flow of tears.

Eventually Niall did stop crying, as his body eventually gave into the exhaustion of not sleeping in two days and over exertion both emotionally and physically.

“He’s out” Louis whispered as he gently stroked Niall’s head.

Liam nodded his understanding and headed into Niall’s hotel room. Louis went ahead, slid down the side of the cot and pulled the covers back for the little boy. Liam laid Niall down softly and the two finally tucked their baby into bed for his nap.

“He always looks so innocent when he sleeps” Liam sighed as he smoothed back the covers one last time before raising the bars and turning on the mobile.

Louis hummed in agreement as he double checked the monitor and walked out of the room, closing the door softly behind him.


End file.
